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Good post. In fact tourniquets are left on for up to three hours in surgery. We generaly try not to exceed 120 to 150 minutes. When a tourniquet is released the pooled blood that reenters system is not "bad blood" it is certainly deoxygenated and hypercarbic. Typically I see a dramatic rise in ETC02 leveals immediatly after tourniquet release. This is usually blown off within a minute or two. For extended ortho surgeries we release for short period of time and then reinflate the tourniquet without any long term ill effect.
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